Restoration Begins on Historic Flatbush Theater

Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Audience Chamber of the Loew’s Kings Theater on 1025 Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn.

Restoration work has begun on one of Brooklyn’s oldest movie stars – the 84-year-old Loew’s Kings Theatre in Flatbush, which has been closed since 1977.

Plans for the restoration of the 3,200-seat theater were announced in 2010 when the city Economic Development Corp. chose ACE Theatrical Group of Houston to restore and manage the property as an entertainment venue. Construction began on Monday and the theater is expected to open in 2015, according to the city.

The Loew’s Kings was once Brooklyn’s largest indoor theater and was one of five “Wonder Theaters” built in New York from 1929 to 1930. It was built by architecture firm Rapp & Rapp with pink marble and high, curved ceilings in a French Renaissance architecture style inspired by the Palace of Versailles and the Paris Opera House. It closed its doors in the face of popular cinema multiplexes and a decline in the neighborhood, and its last show was the 1977 drama film “Islands in the Stream.”

The city hopes the restoration will spur growth along Flatbush, a busy avenue that extends from one end of Brooklyn to another, cutting through the popular Prospect Park. It is also one of a series of arts revitalization projects in the borough supported by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Borough President Marty Markowitz.

In a press release for the event, Markowitz described plans for the theater to become “a combination of the Beacon and the Apollo.”

“Not only will the new facility be the largest indoor theater in the borough—hosting everything from concerts and plays to special events and graduation ceremonies—it will be an engine of economic growth along Flatbush Avenue and for all of Central Brooklyn.